On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extracted updated language published just days earlier about how Covid-19 spreads airborne and defaulted to its previous guidance about Covid-19 transmission, CNN reported.
"A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency's official website,” said Jason McDonald, a CDC spokesman.
McDonald told CNN the CDC is updating its guidance about the airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes Covid-19. Once this is done, the revised language will be posted and available on the CDC website, he said.
For months, researchers and doctors have said Covid-19 can be transferred through tiny airborne droplets that linger, CNN said.
Dr. Don Milton, a professor of applied environmental health, has done research specifically about this topic.
He and other scientists wrote a letter in July urging the World Health Organization and other public health companies to be more outspoken about the possibility that people could catch Covid-19 through airborne particles.
The letter states that “viruses are released during exhalation, talking, and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air and pose a risk of exposure at distances beyond 1–2 [meters] from an infected individual,” signifying that the risk of exposure extends 6 feet.
Milton saw the updated CDC guidance over the weekend and was “encouraged” by the addition of the airborne transmission because it supported his and colleagues’ research. By Monday, however, that information was taken down.
When Milton saw the updated language, he suspected it was unfinished because the rest of the website didn’t reflect the changes, he told CNN.
“I think that the science behind what turned out to be a draft statement is strong and agrees with my understanding of the data," Milton said.
"I'm very happy to know that CDC is working on incorporating the latest science in its public statements about transmission.”
Read the rest on CNN.
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